"All Circuits are Busy" Now What?

[Navman]

Trying to set up a way to communicate with family in the event of a natural or otherwise disaster here in the PNW.

1. I've read that text messages can make it thru when all else cell phone commications can't?

2. When local cell is over loaded, it's best to contact someone out of State to relay messages back into your local area to you loved ones?

Any opinons on this please?

Edit: I have a Ham license but I am the only one in my family.

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[erudne]

This is the reason to have several back-up plans for different situations. If you plan for an EMP/earthquake/tsunami you'll have all the survivable bases covered, (if they set-up road blocks use the storm drains!)

 

[Morpheus]

Depending on the extent of the natural disaster, the internet often times is still up. The networks are more robust in some ways. For some things an email or instant-messenger like service can work wonders.

In a full outage situation, like EMP, you are kind of screwed either way. Having a family wide meet up plan really is the only way to work around that. Everyone in the family needs to know the plan, and where to meet up. With secondary sites in case of the primary one being inaccessible.

Emergency preparedness planning isn't a trivial exercise, and can drive you crazy if you go too deep into it.

 

[XSubSailor]

Get the rest of your family licensed...if only for this reason alone. Also, teach them to utilize the Red Cross and Salvation Army's communicators to transfer messages into or out of a disaster area via the NTS.

 

[happypuppy]

Text messages will probably get through. But that's it. Phone calls are out for a long period of time. I am a member of CERT and we use GMRS/FRS as well. Limited range but work well.

 

[erudne]

In a long and eventful life it has been my experience that the only systems you can rely on are the ones you put in place yourself.
Place your well being into another's hands and you've surrendered your autonomy, and become one of the sheeple.
And don't believe that anyone will send a message without scanning your 'enhanced DL' and demanding your cell # first, of course those may well be scanned as soon as you approach any Relief Center

 

[U201491]

Off the grid powered ham gear. I doubt the cell towers
would even have a signal in a worst case scenario.
Just remember though that radio can be triangulated within minutes now.
Actually seconds.

 

[Navman]

With all the rivers in the PNW, worried about my Wife or kids getting caught on the other side of a fallen bridge since so many are in need of repair.

Does the calling a contact out of State to have them call our loved ones on our behalf work when all local circuits are busy work?

 

[Martini_Up]

With all the rivers in the PNW, worried about my Wife or kids getting caught on the other side of a fallen bridge since so many are in need of repair.

Does the calling a contact out of State to have them call our loved ones on our behalf work when all local circuits are busy work?

it works like this: you call out of state person and leave a message. your loved ones call same person to get the message.

after the nisqually earthquake, we did this with friends in idaho. those in idaho couldn't call us and we couldn't call each other but we could call them.

 

[Burt Gummer]

Cell/text will be out entirely, as will all social networking and possibly the internet itself.

Gov will not want any info getting out except canned pre-done propaganda type stuff via your boob tubes emergency announcements.

No Ham, no alternate radio you are SOL.

(30 years in telecom here, trust me)

Anyone who believes there will be any available cell channels isn't aware of how things work. Even if gov didn't intervene just go to a major event at the Waterfront and try to make a call.

Even with all the antennas and services, it is all set up for a max of about 7% of the populace making a call at once, if that.

 

[Caveman Jim]

Good reliable info there, Burt works on the inside where this all is programmed. I worked 30 years on the outside with the instation & maintenance of telephone cables and remotes and if the programing stops that's it.

 

[happypuppy]

This unit was recommended to me as a basic comm. There are some videos on it on YouTube as well. http://www.survivaltechnology.net/survival-comms-2/baofeng-uv-5r-for-shtf/nggallery/slideshow

 

[Just Jim]

Indian likem smoke signal

 

[U201491]

Cell/text will be out entirely, as will all social networking and possibly the internet itself.

Gov will not want any info getting out except canned pre-done propaganda type stuff via your boob tubes emergency announcements.

No Ham, no alternate radio you are SOL.

(30 years in telecom here, trust me)

Anyone who believes there will be any available cell channels isn't aware of how things work. Even if gov didn't intervene just go to a major event at the Waterfront and try to make a call.

Even with all the antennas and services, it is all set up for a max of about 7% of the populace making a call at once, if that.

Ham will work unless the gov jams it. 2M is a good bet to have. With the number of private repeaters and links and capability of running on battery power, it will be your best shot short of smoke signals LOL.

VHF Is pretty much line of sight, and it will be difficult for them to jam it all. Unless they dedicate satellites to it.

 

[Navman]

I bought this radio rather than leave my Icom hand held in the truck.

Works just fine.

I used the free Chirp to program it.

http://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Home

This unit was recommended to me as a basic comm. There are some videos on it on YouTube as well. http://www.survivaltechnology.net/survival-comms-2/baofeng-uv-5r-for-shtf/nggallery/slideshow

 

[CoastRange57]

Cell/text will be out entirely, as will all social networking and possibly the internet itself.

Gov will not want any info getting out except canned pre-done propaganda type stuff via your boob tubes emergency announcements.

No Ham, no alternate radio you are SOL.

(30 years in telecom here, trust me)

Anyone who believes there will be any available cell channels isn't aware of how things work. Even if gov didn't intervene just go to a major event at the Waterfront and try to make a call.

Even with all the antennas and services, it is all set up for a max of about 7% of the populace making a call at once, if that.

All this was clearly illustrated on September 11, 2001. I was working as a business turn around guy and most of my work was on the phone and over the internet. The phones both land line and cell functioned fairly well for the first 2 hours after the first crash, but sent down entirely shortly there after.

I was able to communicate with 2 of my business associates by message / chat but very little even west coast phone was functional.

You combine no cell phone service, limited and unpredictable internet access, and 3 times the people hitting the roadways and you can see the problem quickly.

 

[rick benjamin]

SHTF
Everyone picks up their land line phone to call ...
Only the first few in line can complete their calls.
The rest get reorder, 120 ipm beeps, recording.
There are thousands of customers served by a central office, only hundreds of trunks out of the CO to the world.

SHTF
Everyone reaches for their cell phone to call ...
Only the first few in line ...
The rest get dumped
Your cell phone and everyone else's cell phone is served by the nearest cell tower. The tower is linked to a CO by a "trunk line" There are more customers then there are trunk lines.

Bert and Jim are well versed in telephone stuff.
Metoo, spent 39 years working for the old AT&T 4A, private line, toll radio, custom service, fiber optics splicing, microwave radio, and the Frame.

 

[The Heretic]

Get the rest of your family licensed...if only for this reason alone. Also, teach them to utilize the Red Cross and Salvation Army's communicators to transfer messages into or out of a disaster area via the NTS.

Uhhh yeah - not going to happen with most people - at least not a Ham license.

They can't be bothered to study for it.

I am going to get mine, but I already have my GROL and a EE degree, so I passed it the first time I took a practice online test. I did practice and study until I aced it a few times.

 

[The Heretic]

Yes, SMS sometimes stands a better chance of getting through because it can sometimes be routed on a lower priority route and then doesn't compete with voice traffic.

But increasingly most traffic is digital and shares bandwidth with other traffic.

Your best bet with SMS is to keep the message very short so that it is sent in one SMS message - i.e., 140 to 160 chars. More than that is often sent in multiple SMS messages (not usually apparent to you) and therefore it may stand less of a chance of getting through.

Keep it short and simple: "Am ok - coming home. ETA 2 hrs" or "take alt route".

Not "OMG! did you feel that? I am sending you a video of the roof caving in! What should we do? I don't know what to do! OMFG! blah blah blah ad infinitum"

Have plans regardless - have your family have plans, which routes you will take, what routes they will take. Where to go, when to go or stay, etc.

I plan to get some Baofeng HTs with a mag mount antenna for a vehicle, put these and a AA battery pack in metal bag, preprogrammed for FRS/GMRS freqs. and some other freqs with instructions to use the FRS/GMRS freqs first and only to use these in an emergency and only if they can't use their cell phones.

 

[U201491]

Just the simple fact it is not water resistant or waterproof is enough for me to recommend people avoid it, but the difficulty in programming it is the main reason.
Seriously spend the extra and get a straight simple 2M handheld. They are difficult enough to program to all the offsets, pl and other tones and the avg person will not be able to operate them in a high pressure situation unless they are well versed in using them. Ham radio for the newbie needs to be held to the KISS system and even that will drive many nuts LOL. 2M will end up being the main freq for most local comms and HF when out there will be the long range. They can be linked though. 70cm will be all but useless.

This unit was recommended to me as a basic comm. There are some videos on it on YouTube as well. http://www.survivaltechnology.net/survival-comms-2/baofeng-uv-5r-for-shtf/nggallery/slideshow

The negatives are tremendous. Reliability and ease of operation and programming needs to be the main objective. A couple hundred and you can have a top notch 2M Yeasu, Icom and Kenwood are just 3 of the dozens available. from a little over a hundred to several hundred, but they perform. Yeasu also makes the Standard Horizon Marine radios.
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Misconceptions about the UV-5R
There are many misconceptions about his radio. Lots of this has to do with the Chinese marketing bullsh*t that comes along with the radio. The rest of it comes from people who have experience with this radio, but are not experienced with comms in general, or have never owned a proper radio to compare to. There are also those from Prepper and Survival communities who promote these radios because they get commissions from Amazon or other web-based shops for pushing them. Nevertheless, here are some of the misconceptions.

• • If you are using this radio without an amateur radio license, even on MURS, PMR or FRS frequencies, regardless of power settings, you are breaking the law! It may seem unfiar, but that's how it is :\
  • Some forums and YouTube producers incorrectly tell people that the UV-5R is a 2 meter 4 meter radio. That is not correct. It is a 2 meter/70 centimeter radio!
  • The radio does have built in FM broadcast radio. No you cannot transmit on that band. it is RX only.
  • The radio does not have "Wide band" coverage. The radio operates in the 2 meter and 70 centimeter amateur radio bands full stop. For an example of a wide-band radio, check out the Yaesu FT-60.
  • Scanning. There is no scanning feature on the UV-5R in the traditional since of the term. You can "scan" through the memories on the radio, but that is more like cycling through the memories, than scanning an entire band.
  • The radio is not waterproof. This radio has no weatherproofing or IP rating at all. If you spit on it, it's quite likely to burst into flames! Ok not really, but no attempt has been made by the Chinese to protect this radio from the elements. Moreover, dust is the main killer of the radio, and there are no spare parts available for the display which is usually the first component to go when used outside of a clean environment.
  • You can't modify this radio to do anything! The radio is what it is. If you think you are going to modify it for something else, you are wrong. You can't expand the frequencies, although there is a mod to alolow the display to show frequencies which it does not cover.
  • The USB cable is not an interface for addition methods of communication with this radio. It is purely a cable for programming memories and frequency settings into the radio.
  • Operation in MURS, PMR, FRS, and GMRS. Sure it "CAN" operate in those frequencies, however, to keep your radio happy, use a properly tuned antenna for each of those bands. The stock antenna was not designed to operate that those frequencies!
  • This radio has nothing in common with ANY YEASU RADIO! Its name and external design were purposely made to look like a Yaesu radio for marketing purposes! Yaesu radio are manufactured in JAPAN, not China!